The Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA)

Currently, there are approximately 100 students per year engaged in some form of undergraduate research and creative activity under the guidance and supervision of faculty mentors. We hope to exponentially increase the number of undergraduate research experiences during the Comprehensive Campaign. Supporting these students’ lab and field work, travel, conference attendance, publishing and faculty mentoring takes financial resources beyond what the College can currently provide. An endowment for CURCA will allow Siena College to enhance opportunities for students to partner with faculty members in their research and scholarship efforts. CURCA will also assist faculty in creating an undergraduate research experience for their students. The future director of CURCA will also work closely with the faculty and students to pursue opportunities for co-authorship of journal research articles, joint poster presentations at regional and national conferences and serve as the editor of a nationally disseminated journal on undergraduate research and creative activity.

Far more undergraduates are eager and ready to ignite their imaginations and hone their skills through extra-classroom scholarship and scientific research than there are dollars to fund. Siena’s (CURCA) seeks to:

Match these mutually beneficial needs by acting as the clearinghouse identifying faculty research and creative activity with raring to go, qualified students;

Train and mentor faculty on how to create undergraduate research as a form of teaching;

Assist faculty in finding funding for their research or creative activity; and

Train and mentor faculty on how to create a lab or field work to support their research.

**Enter your gift as Restricted with the designation of CURCA

Naming Opportunities for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

The Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity1

RESERVED

$1,500,000

The Summer Research Scholars Fund2

$ 250,000

Five (5) $50,000 Summer Research Scholars Funds

The Academic Research Fund3

250,000

Five (5) $50,000 Academic Research Funds

$2,000,000

1 Endow the Executive Director’s compensation.2 Endow $12,500 to pay for up to twenty (20) students engaged in scholarly research during four (4) – ten (10) weeks in the summer.3 Endow $12,500 to provide faculty with funding for research as a form of student engagement and pedagogy. The Director of CURCA will create a grant application review procedure to control the awarding of this fund.